2013 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Clajeux Vineyard Chalk Hill 750 ml

Arnot-Roberts Clajeux Vineyard: 6.9 Acres in the Mayacamas

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate was first to jump on the Arnot-Roberts bandwagon, calling it “one of the most exciting young wineries” in the world. As he has done so often over the last 40 years, Parker called it as he saw it. And he called it right.

But while many credit the meteoric ascent of Arnot-Roberts to the brilliant winemaking of Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Roberts, the partners are quick to cast the spotlight on the vineyards from which they draw their fruit — especially the 7 acres of world-class mountain Cabernet Sauvignon grown on a back-breaking hillside called “Clajeux.”

Our first encounter with the Clajeux Vineyard took place six years ago, while seated on barstools in Nathan and Duncan’s makeshift winery a couple hundred yards behind the coffee shop in Forestville. The tasting table lineup was filled with standouts, but it would be the last two bottles of the day — two single-vineyard mountain Cabernets — that stole the afternoon thunder. The first came from John Bugay’s property at the end of Crystal Springs Court. The second came from Clajeux.

Before we left Forestville, Nathan called John Bugay, setting up our first visit to that mountain oasis at the end of Crystal Springs Court. But scheduling a visit to Clajeux would prove far more elusive. Finally, nearly a year after that first barstool tasting, we wound our way up Petrified Forest Road, high up into the jagged hills of the Mayacamas to get our first look at what Duncan had said is “the most intriguing mountain Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard” on the coast.

We were less than a half-hour out of Calistoga when we pulled into the property, yet it felt like we were hundreds of miles away from the bustle of Highway 29. As we drove up to the farmhouse, we saw the deer. A wild turkey strutted across the dirt road unperturbed. With wild flowers all around, woodpeckers pounded out a staccato beat on the old oak trees. The entire property was just under 100 acres, home to deer, fox, bobcat, opossum, rabbit, and at least one wild turkey. Yet the vineyard was just 6.9 acres, set in a sun-dappled cutout, bracketed by forest. Divided into two distinct blocks, the upper parcel was planted to Clone 337, providing the great structure and minerality. The steep terraces of the lower block are planted to Clone 7, as Nathan told us, “providing the intense black-fruit core.”

Before our tasting notes, a brief thank you to Nathan and Duncan. Arnot-Roberts is now located in brand-new digs a few blocks from the center of Healdsburg. The brand is ON FIRE — every case entirely allocated months before bottling. Today’s 20-case allocation of the staggering 2013 Clajeux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is the largest offered to any outlet in America. Why? Because unlike so many, Nathan and Duncan never forgot WineAccess’s efforts when the winery was struggling to make ends meet. Even in a high-end Cabernet market gone wild, Arnot-Roberts didn’t forget.

By our scorecards, the 2013 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Clajeux Vineyard Chalk Hill ranks among the top 10 mountain Cabernet Sauvignons of Robert Parker’s “greatest vintage in 37 years.” Brilliant purple-black. Explosive aromas of crushed black fruits, mountain blueberries, tobacco, graphite, and sweet herbs, tempered by a hint of new-wood cedar. Powerfully built, dense, and compact, filled with a tightly wound mix of black-fruit preserves, black cherry, and violets, it took two hours in Zalto Bordeaux stemware for the extraordinary complexity of the small-berry Cabernet Sauvignon drawn off this 6.9-acre vineyard in the Mayacamas to take center stage. 30% whole cluster fermentation adds chewy texture and briery notes. Aged in 30% new French oak. Drink now if you’re half out of your mind, or far better, lay this brilliant effort from Duncan Meyers and Nathan Roberts until the mid-2030s. It could surely use the rest.

A STEAL at $90/bottle. Buy three. Lay them down. Send the thank you note in a decade.